Advance copies of this statement are made available to the
press under lock-up conditions with the explicit
understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time.
Statement of
Kathleen P. Utgoff
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Friday, December 5, 2003
Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 57,000 in
November, and the unemployment rate, at 5.9 percent, was
essentially unchanged over the month. Since July, payroll
employment has increased by 328,000.
Over the month, the number of jobs in health care and
social assistance continued to increase, rising by 25,000 in
November. The accommodations industry added 13,000 jobs,
following losses that totaled 27,000 in the prior 3 months.
Although employment in professional and business
services was little changed in November, employment in this
sector has risen by 181,000 so far this year. About three-
quarters of this gain was in temporary help services.
Construction employment continued to trend up in
November; the industry has added 156,000 jobs since
February.
Retail trade employment fell by 28,000 in November,
largely due to the net impact of strike-related activities
in food and beverage stores. In the payroll survey, workers
on strike for the entire reference period are not counted as
employed because they are not being paid by their employers.
Although a large number of workers were off payrolls in food
stores due to labor-management disputes, the hiring of
replacement workers offset some of the employment decline.
The number of jobs in credit intermediation, which
includes mortgage banking, declined for the second
consecutive month. Since September, the industry has lost
16,000 jobs, but that follows employment gains of about a
quarter million over the prior 3 years. Most of this job
growth reflected increased mortgage refinancing activity,
which has fallen sharply in recent months.
The pace of job losses in manufacturing has eased in
recent months. Over the past 3 months, employment edged
down by an average of 17,000 per month, compared with an
average monthly drop of 53,000 for the 12 months ending in
August. Nearly all of this relative improvement has
occurred in durable goods manufacturing, where employment
was unchanged in November. The manufacturing workweek
increased by 0.2 hour over the month and has risen by 0.7
hour since July. Factory overtime also has risen in recent
months.
Average hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory
workers were essentially unchanged in November at $15.46.
Over the year, average hourly earnings increased by 2.1
percent. Since March 2001, the over-the-year change in
average hourly earnings has dropped by 2 percentage points.
Looking at some of our measures obtained from the
survey of households, the unemployment rate in November, at
5.9 percent, was about unchanged over the month but down
slightly from the rates recorded during the summer. The
number of unemployed persons was little changed at 8.7
million in November, and the number of individuals who had
been jobless for more than half a year remained at 2.0
million. These long-term unemployed comprised nearly 1 in
every 4 unemployed persons.
The employment-population ratio, the proportion of the
civilian population age 16 and over that is employed,
increased to 62.4 percent and is up by 0.4 percentage point
from September.
In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose for the
fourth month in a row, edging up by 57,000 in November. The
unemployment rate, at 5.9 percent, was essentially unchanged
from October.